On June 21 - July 2, 2021, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Radiation Sources Regulatory Partnership participated in the IAEA-Argonne Regional Training Course on Responding to a Medical Event, the Role of the Regulatory Authority.
The purpose of the event was to provide the participants with an understanding of the role of the regulatory authority when a medical event has been identified or reported. The training focused on roles and responsibilities of the regulatory authority in investigating a medical event, emphasizing that a reported or discovered event is an opportunity to improve the safety and quality of radiotherapy, and how the regulator can assist in improving safety culture.
The event included 27 participants from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.
An expert from NRC’s contractor, Advanced Systems Technology and Management, Inc. (AdSTM), Mr. Mark Shaffer, provided presentations on strengthening regulations and the regulator’s role in strengthening safety culture in medicine, inspecting for adequacy of safety culture and the importance of documentation and writing reports.